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Tag Archives | Common Craft

Claytorial is the claymation version of Common Craft, and their goal is to “help people understand complicated things”.

Their first demo is for a magazine called More2Girls, and it shows off what they’ve got in store, though I can’t wait to see what they can with a concept like the Google spider, which is currently in their upcoming section.

For now though, it’s a great start, and a good look at an area that I think we’ll see a lot of in the coming year. (Explanations for complex technologies and services in simple and easy to understand ways.)

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is “a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts”.

The main reason people use RSS is that it allows them to subscribe to sites that they like, and then view that site’s content without actually viewing the site itself. This can be a huge time saver when you’re following a large number of different sites, and allows you to automatically receive new content when it’s available.

For an impressively clear explanation, check out the following video:

To get started with RSS, you’ll need an RSS reader. Many people either use Google’s free online reader, Google Reader, or any of the NewsGator products.

Next, you’ll need to find RSS feeds to subscribe to. Most of your favorite sites probably already have them, so just keep an eye out for the RSS symbol:

If you’re using Firefox, check the address bar, as Firefox automatically looks for an RSS feed and places the RSS logo in the address bar if it finds one.

Once you click on that symbol, you’ll typically be taken to a site that allows you to select your subscription options. It shouldn’t take more than a few clicks, and then you should be all configured and ready to go.

(If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the DYH RSS Feed for all of the latest and greatest DYH content.)